2025 Hungarian MotoGP: Marc Marquez takes pole, Pecco Bagnaia season-worst 15th

MotoGP championship leader Marc Marquez took pole at the Hungarian Grand Prix, while factory Ducati team-mate Pecco Bagnaia was a season-worst 15th.

After ending Friday in strong form at Balaton Park, Marc Marquez looked set to go head-to-head with KTM’s Pedro Acosta in a tight battle for pole.

But that never emerged, as a crash for Acosta early on in Q2 put him on the back foot as Marquez proved out of reach for most of the session.

The factory Ducati rider took pole for the eighth time in 2025 with a margin of 0.290s over Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi, who came through Q1 for a second week in a row.

VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio made it two Ducati GP25s inside the top three, having also come through Q1, while the third of the factory bikes was only 15th as Pecco Bagnaia suffered his worst qualifying of the season.

Acosta, who topped Friday practice, fell from his KTM at the fast Turn 8 on his first flying lap and totalled one of his RC16s.

He was unharmed in the incident and was able to get back for his second bike.

At the same time, Marc Marquez moved to the top of the order with a 1m36.822s, though had to abort his second lap when he exceeded track limits.

He would follow that up with a 1m36.646s on his third flier before heading to pitlane for fresh rubber.

A final gambit of 1m36.518s proved unnecessary, but cemented him pole position for Saturday’s sprint and Sunday’s grand prix at Balaton Park.

He headed Marco Bezzecchi, with the Aprilia rider 0.290s off the pace in second, as Fabio Di Giannantonio rounded out the front row.

Tech3’s Enea Bastianini ultimately led the KTM charge in fourth, as Acosta could do no better than seventh after his early crash.

Franco Morbidelli completed the top five on his VR46 GP24 Ducati, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo sixth.

Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer was eighth on his GP24, with Honda’s Luca Marini heading team-mate Joan Mir in ninth.

Alex Marquez struggled to 11th on his Gresini Ducati, and will drop three places on Sunday for an impeding incident in Practice on Friday.

A crash at the end of Q2 left Tech3 stand-in Pol Espargaro 12th on the grid.

Brad Binder was denied a place in Q2 despite setting an identical Q1 time to Di Giannantonio, with the KTM forced to start 13th ahead of Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller - who also has a three place grid drop.

Continuing to struggle in the braking zones, Pecco Bagnaia failed to get out of Q1 for the first time this season and will have to fight through from 15th in the sprint, but will be promoted to 13th for the grand prix.

Reigning world champion Jorge Martin was 17th on the sister factory team Aprilia.

Full 2025 MotoGP Hungarian Grand Prix qualifying results